Me again. First time I heard this song I thought it was a joke – "lol blur has done an end-of-album lolz" type thing. How wrong I was. This song blossoms over time like nothing else on the album.

On the vinyl pressing of TGE, the solitary gong at the end of the song flows straight into the run-out groove, rather than going on for about 30 seconds. Consequently the Ernold Same carousel reprise is cut completely.

Yup, Dizzy was robbed! I named my cats Yuko & Hiro in high school, so I'm happy to see this one get a first place vote! Anyone have any idea what is sung at the end? Is that Japanese? French? It's so indistinct..

Daavid - Blur are well known among fans for their bsides. I treated their singles as mini events as a kid. They were the kind of band, like the Boo Radleys who I love for similar reasons, who used bsides to let off creative steam by experimenting, and a lot of fucking around and being silly. This let me into their world, their mindsets as much as big hits and albums. They were also highly prolific; often being forced to leave perfectly great songs off of albums to make room for slightly less good songs. God knows why something like young and lovely might be left off modern life.

often being forced to leave perfectly great songs off of albums to make room for slightly less good songs. God knows why something like young and lovely might be left off modern life.

I get why that happens. If it interrupts the flow of the album, or in some cases merely the narrative, it's out. For the life of me I can't think where Young & Lovely (cheers to the people who posted links & the youtube upthread btw) could be slotted into MLIR without buggering it up.

I wasn't a fan of Trouble In The Message Centre at the time - it sounded too eighties and new wave. Now I love it for this exact reason. Must've been a bit of a risk doing eighties pastiche so close after the fact.

Wow yeah, I do love it. I didn't think I loved it as much as I do 'til I put it on after I'd voted, while reminiscing about something else, and the combination was so overwhelming that I had to back and amend my ballot. So one of those #1s is mine.

TGE was really the first album to make any kind of impression in Aus. Obv the self-titled album (specifically Song 2) was the breakthrough, but Parklife did so poorly here that I found it in a cut-out bin for $10 right as it was smashing up the British music press.